Espresso-ed to you by Pam Golding
It’s time to end the tipping games: let’s price our food honestly, pay staff fairly, and keep tips as a reward for great service—not a mandatory hidden tax! 🇿🇦🍔
To tip or not to tip, that is the question. It’s a contentious topic and packed with emotion and differing opinions. One’s opinion might change depending on which side of the ‘table’ they’re sitting.
It is an issue passionately debated on X. It is also clearly a cultural issue, as the divide in responses between the US and Europe is incredibly stark, with no middle ground. The question I’ve been asking is, what is the South African tipping culture? The short answer is we don’t have a definitive one. While we always try to play devil’s advocate and see the situation from every angle, we do seem to be doing some heavy treading on the middle ground.
I’m sure we’ve all heard the argument – “Waiters get such a poor basic salary (If anything at all) and rely on their tips to survive” a plight with which I do sympathise, however I am in the camp that ‘Tipping should and always must be optional and dependent on excellent service”. The moment that I am made to feel obliged is an instant turn off. This has recently been amplified at ‘counter service’ outlets, whereby the payment device is handed to you with the total and a range of tipping options from 20% to 40% (In the US, it can go over a 100%!).
I’m all for someone making a fair buck for a day’s work; however, instead of advertising your cappuccino at R30 when the expectation is R35, just make it R35 to start with and remove the tip option. If the service is phenomenal, you would still make money on top of that.
My major gripe is with mandatory service charges that remove the option to tip; a small disclaimer at the door states that a 10% service charge will be added to all bills. All menu items and table talkers continue to promote prices that are 10% lower than what you will actually be paying. Yes! But if we advertise our R100 burger at R120, people won’t come! But that is what they are expected to pay anyway. A time will come where someone will advertise a burger at R5* with the fine print stating that the price excludes cleaning, bathroom, parking, music license, TV licence, various insurances, health and safety checks, breakages, gas, electricity, solar, Jo-Jo, HR, advertising and of course service charges.
The bottom line is we get it, it is costly and challenging to run a café or restaurant, and we expect to pay a premium for the opportunity to frequent your venue. However, consider all your costs when setting your prices, including a competitive wage and allow the public to shower phenomenal service with gratitude!
Just a tip.
